REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO NEW PSALMIST BAPTIST CHURCH SERVICE
Baltimore, Maryland

1:58 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Reverend Cummings. (Laughter and applause.)
It's difficult enough to follow one sermon, much less two. (Laughter.)

Let me say to Reverend Thomas, I never wanted your message to end. It
was wonderful, thank you. (Applause.) I, too, join in wishing Mrs.
Thomas a happy birthday. I thank all the wonderful staff and
parishioners here at New Psalmist. I have to say that my staff
especially appreciated the assistance from Dr. David Blow (phonetic). I
thank Congressman Cummings for his welcome here.

I tell you, I was here about 10 minutes and I realized how Elijah got
to Congress. (Laughter and applause.) And I thank all of his staff,
Vernon Simmons and others. I thank Mayor Schmoke for all the help that
your people gave us. Thank you, sir. (Applause.) I thank your two
wonderful senators, Senator Sarbanes and Senator Mikulski. (Applause.)
Senator Mikulski is running for reelection, but she's going to win by
acclamation so nobody remembers that she's on the ballot -- but I think
I should tell you that she is and she would like it very much if you
remembered that, as well. (Applause.)

I thank Governor Glendening and Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy
Townsend for all they have done for Maryland, and I commend them.
(Applause.) Congressman Cardin, thank you for being here. To Secretary
of State John Willis, it's his birthday, too, today, by the way.
(Applause.) I would like to thank Senator Blount, County Executive
Ruppersberger, City Council President Bell, City Comptroller Joan Pratt.
(Applause.) And I would like to say a special word of appreciation to
former Congressman and NAAC President and my wonderful, wonderful
friend, Kwesi Mfume, thank you for being here today, thank you.
(Applause.)

Now, it's been more than 40 years since Rosa Parks gave up her seat on
a bus in Montgomery, Alabama to change America forever. Dr. King said
it is better to walk in dignity, than to ride in shame. And ever since
then America has been on a long walk toward dignity. Some people who
are not African Americans don't know it yet, but we've all been on that
walk -- not just black Americans, all Americans, for none live in
dignity when any are oppressed. (Applause.)

It is a journey this church knows well. Just think about it -- 100
years ago, starting with five members, to come to this congregation of
6,000 men, women and children in this magnificent house of worship.
This is the day the Lord has made and we can rejoice in it. (Applause.)
You have all this high technology and you are very modern, but you have
not forgotten your mission. Not only here, to hear the word of God, but
to do it -- with a food bank, with scholarships for college, with health
care, with a boys' club, with the Girl Scouts, all the things this
church is involved in. You have helped each other walk in dignity. You
have fulfilled the admonition of the scripture to be doers of the word
and not hearers only. And on Tuesday, you will once again have the
chance to be doers. (Applause.)

Now, the message today was from Matthew. So I just kind of
rumbled through Matthew at the beginning of the service, not so as to
distract my concentration from the message -- (laughter). And there are
few things from Matthew I'd like for us to remember. In Matthew, Jesus
says to render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's. Now, back
then that didn't mean too much because Caesar was an emperor and all the
people had to do to render unto Caesar was to pay their taxes and obey
the law. But thank the Lord there is no Caesar in this country.
(Applause.) The good news is there is no Caesar. The bad news is, the
people who have to render have more to do. Because you pick the people
who make the decisions. (Applause.) You pick the people -- or not --
depending on what you do.

Elijah was so kind, he said all those nice things to me. I'm
proud of the fact that the American Dream is closer to more Americans
than it was six years ago -- (applause) -- that more Americans can go to
college; that we have the lowest poverty rate ever recorded among
African Americans; that we have the smallest welfare rolls in 29 years
and the lowest unemployment in 28 years. (Applause.) I'm proud of all
that.

But let me tell you something. If you helped me get there, then
you did that. You did that. (Applause.) You heard the Pastor say
today when he preaches the word of God it is God's gift, not his. You
heard that, when he said that, didn't you? That's the way democracy
works, except you're in the driver's seat, you're Caesar -- not me, you.
If you are a doer.

Remember when John Glenn went up in space a couple of days ago --
didn't we all feel good? It gave all of us who aren't young anymore
something to look forward to. (Laughter.) I was so proud. Proud
because I know him to be a wonderful, good man; proud because of what he
gave our country 36 years ago. But also proud because that was an act
of democracy. That space program is paid for by you, voted for by your
Congress, supported by your President. (Applause.)

But in the end, therefore, if you supported me and those who
supported that program, then you had your hand on John Glenn's shoulder
when he went up in space. (Applause.) That's what this means. You had
your hand on him.

In the last several days as I have traveled around America, so
many people have come up to me and said, thank you for working for peace
in the Middle East, thank you for staying up for a week -- literally, 39
hours at the end -- thank you for doing that. (Applause.) And I say to
them, it is my job and my honor. But because you put me there, if you
felt good about that you should feel good about yourself because you
helped to make the peace in the Middle East. (Applause.)

Now that's how this works. That's how this works. This march to
dignity, a dignity that Rosa Parks talked about, the dignity that Martin
Luther King died for, the dignity that Nelson Mandela spent 10,000 days
in jail for. We had the President of Colombia here this week, a country
ravaged by civil war, ravaged by drug traffickers; a man who, himself,
was kidnapped, who just by the grace of God was not killed -- with a
wonderful wife who has had people in her whole family killed. I have
worked with people in Colombia for six years now. Hundreds of law
abiding people have been killed simply for trying to uphold the law.
And we too often take this vote for granted and say, oh, it doesn't
matter what we do.

If you think the things that Congressman Cummings said matter,
don't pat me on the back -- pat yourselves on the back. That's how this
system works. (Applause.)

If you think that the things that Senator Sarbanes votes for, that
Senator Mikulski votes for, Congressman Cardin votes for; if you think
it's a good thing that Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend
made Maryland the first state in the country to say young children in
school ought to serve their communities, it's a part of their education,
it'll make them better citizens -- (applause) -- if you think it's a
good thing that Maryland under Governor Glendening's leadership has
pioneered education reforms and environmental advances; if you like all
that, you did that. (Applause.) You did that. You should feel that it
is yours, it is part of your walk to dignity.

And that is what this is about. Tuesday, there is no Caesar.
Your vote counts as much as mine, counts as much as Speaker Gingrich --
it does. (Applause.) It counts as much as anybody. It counts as much
as people who can contribute vast fortunes to campaigns. Tuesday,
everything gets evened up again, if you show up. (Applause.)

Now, what I want to say to you is that this is not an ordinary
time or an ordinary election. There is a lot at stake. This year
because the members of Congress here present stood with me, we were able
to stop a raid on the surplus before we saved Social Security, and we
were able to get the funding for a big down payment on our goal of
100,000 more teachers. And we did it, in the end, against the
opposition of the members of the other party. But there is a lot more
to be done.

We want to pass that patients' bill of rights so medical decisions
are made by doctors, not accountants. (Applause.) We want to pass that
school construction proposal so all these teachers will have classrooms,
not trailers, to teach our little children in. (Applause.) We want to
raise the minimum wage because unemployment and inflation are low, but
you still can't raise a family on $5.15 an hour. (Applause.) We want
to pass a juvenile justice bill, yes, that punishes people who have to
be, but remembers that the only real answer is to keep more of our
children out of trouble in the first place and save our children, give
them a chance to have a brighter future. (Applause.)

We want not just to save this surplus and save our economy, we
want to reform the Social Security system so that it doesn't go broke
when the baby boomers retire and our children will be able to continue
to raise our grandchildren without having to take us on their backs.
That's what we want to do. (Applause.)

Now, think of what was denied. We are fighting hard for the
dignity of living wage in the face of partisanship that refused us last
time; for a patients' bill of rights in the face of partisanship that
listened to the health insurance companies the last time; for the
dignity of sending our children to learn with good teachers and small
classes in decent, modernized schools all hooked up to computers and the
Internet in the face of those who opposed us the last time. And we are
fighting for the dignity of a secure retirement in old age way into the
future in the face of those who would squander this hard won surplus on
election year promises.

Now, in this election we've had a tough time. Our friends in the
other party have raised over $100 million more than we have. Now, you
can do that if you take the positions they took: killing the patients'
bill of rights, killing campaign finance reform, refusing to raise the
minimum wage, be willing to endanger the rights of mothers and their
children and child support in changing the bankruptcy laws, refusing to
pass legislation to protect our children from the dangers of tobacco,
which still kills more people every year than any other public health
problem.

Now, why would this happen? Why would people who live in a
democracy vote against modern schools when most people are for them?
Because they think most people won't vote. Why would they kill a
tobacco reform bill most people support? Because they think most people
won't vote. Why would they kill a raise in the minimum wage that most
Americans of all incomes support? Because they think most Americans
won't vote.

Just in case, of course, we got news yesterday that there's
actually an effort to keep African American and other minority voters
from voting in voter intimidation in Maryland and in six or seven other
states. But you know what? On Tuesday, you're in control of the
arithmetic again and you can vote. (Applause.)

I say that not in an angry spirit. You know all over America
today there are people in other churches who have a different view. Who
believe that their principles require them to vote only for people at
the extreme right wing of the Republican Party. But if you go back
through all America, what is this about? You know, I used to think
because I was a young boy growing up in the south, and I came from
people that didn't have a lot of money -- it used to break my heart when
I would see my people, poor working people, be among the most hostile
toward our black brothers and sisters. And finally I figured out that
they did that instead of joining hands with them to lift everybody
together because they thought they needed somebody to look down on.

And if you look around the whole world today -- from the Middle
East to Ireland, where my people come from, to the tribal warfare in
Africa, to the problems in Bosnia and Kosovo -- you see all of this
turmoil and human misery caused by people who believe that politics is
about gaining power over somebody you can look down out. It's about
dividing the country between us and them. (Applause.)

That's why Elijah said the Pledge Of Allegiance to you. That's
why he said the Pledge Of Allegiance. One nation, indivisible. But
make no mistake about it, in the 1950s, when I was a kid growing up,
communism was a big problem and stayed so until the end of the Cold War.
So the dividers in our country would just try to paint their opponents
as a little too pink, a little too close to the communists. Then we had
race as an issue. Now, immigrants. Always some way to divide up the
electorate so that there is us and them.

Now why don't we have that view? Partly because you know what
it's like to be treated like them. Partly because you read the whole
scripture. The Corinthian says, now we see through a glass darkly.
What does that mean? We just don't know everything. We don't have a
right to look down on people and sort them out because we don't have the
whole truth. The whole promise of the scripture is that we will someday
have it. (Applause.) Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face
to face. Now we know in part, but then we will know even as we are
known. And now abideth faith, hope and love, charity. And the greatest
of these is love. Why is love the greatest of these? Because we're all
in this boat together. That's why. (Applause.)

Yes, you know, there's some divisions out there. But Matthew
cautions us not to strain to the gnat and swallow a camel. And Matthew
reminds us that a city and a house divided against itself cannot stand.
(Applause.) What does the bible say, what does the bible tell us? One
thing the bible tells us hundreds of times -- hundreds and hundreds of
times about politics -- the only thing it tells us hundreds and hundreds
of times is to care for the poor, the weak, the needy. (Applause.) In
Matthew, Jesus says, verily I say unto you even as you have done this
unto the least of these my brethren, you have also done it unto me.
(Applause.)

And then down the way a little bit, down the way a few verses it
says, and I say to you even as you have not done it unto the least of
these my brethren, you have not done it unto me.

So I say to you, we believe that our politics should be guided by
what our Lord said was the first and most important commandment and the
second is like unto it. First we must try to love the Lord, our God,
with all our heart. (Applause.) And the second is like unto it, thou
shalt love they neighbor as thyself. (Applause.)

So I say Tuesday is about whether we'll have a patients' bill of
rights, whether we'll have good schools for all our children, whether we
will raise the minimum wage, whether we will save Social Security for
the 21st century. But in a larger sense it's about that march to
dignity. It's about whether your hand is going to be on the shoulder of
every person doing every good thing that will be done. It's about
whether the people who believe they should divide America can leave you
out because you stay home. It's about whether you believe that you have
to be a doer.

I appreciate your applause. And I am more grateful by far for
just having the chance to share this worship service with you, to be
reminded of the truths that I need to hear, too, just like you.
(Applause.) You remember that in this country there are only two places
-- only two, only two -- where we have fulfilled both the admonition of
the scriptures and the promise of the founders that all of us are
created equal -- only two. One is when you come into your house of
worship on Sunday. And the other is when you show up at the ballot box.
(Applause.)

So I ask you, there are thousands here. You will see tens of
thousands more between now and Tuesday. Be a doer. Tell them they
should show up, too. Take them by the hand and bring them. Tell them
about Rosa Parks. Ask them not to forget what Dr. King died for. Ask
them not to forget what the issues in this election are. But
ultimately, it really is all about what Congressman Cummings said. I
have done everything I could to bring this country together, to
reconcile the American people to one another so we could go forward
together. (Applause.)

But in the end that must be done by all of us together. And
Tuesday, it's your turn. Take it.